May Brings Flowers…Well, Not in Africa: 2014 Goals

It’s time again to check in with my online accountability group on our goals for this year. How was April? Anyone is welcome to join in, sharing their goals and progress either on her own blog or in the comments section here. Here are my original 2014 goals, and here are my April goals with comments below on how they went–or not. Then I’ll add my incremental goals for May!

Ministry

1. I visited with women twice again, and texted five ladies. So in May, I would like to text or phone 4 ladies (same goal).
2. I made lip balm! (This is our newest endeavor to make money for our church building.) The recipe worked great! It took a lot of time to clean the pots, since it is difficult to put such a small amount in without running over. Seth had labels made, and one lady (not from church) has sold some for me. May–make more if needed, try to find some venues to sell it. Possibly order more pots.
   
3. Our third ladies’ monthly meeting was somewhat poorly attended. This weekend I texted the pastors to announce May’s meeting, and I need to begin planning my lesson the first week of May. I need to announce it better this month to have better attendance. Plan ahead more! (I’m used to having another helper with the planning, but don’t this year.)
   
4. We got together with one family in April. In May we are going to take a trip to Joburg for Seth to preach at a family camp, so that will take care of “reaching out to friends.”
   

Marriage

I forgot to do much special for Seth’s birthday, because of some other stressful events around that time. In May, I want to give more verbal affirmation.

Children

1. Be more consistent in discipline and prayer for them.
2. Be willing to leave the computer (and “me time”) for them.
3. Do the “fun stuff” and play more games with them.

We did some “fun stuff” with the kids this month, but I still feel that I need to devote more time to the toddlers. This month I got up early sometimes to go running with Caleb, but then I got busy doing chores and so didn’t do as well with Bible reading or sitting with toddlers.  May–I will take one week off of homeschooling and plan to toilet train my last-born on the week. (Lord-willing! I’m not good at that!) I still want to go to bed earlier and get up earlier, so that I can get my morning work done in time to get some reading and cuddling time with the two littles before beginning homeschooling. Our “fun stuff” this month will be a visit to a friend’s farm and a trip to Joburg. What a “fun” month!

Homeschooling

1. I need to plan Callie’s preschool curriculum Letter of the Week this month. I am not sure if I will start this month or in June. Still haven’t done this.
   
2. I want to make a tentative literature plan for Caleb this year of classic children’s books that I’d definitely like to fit in along with the historical fiction we’re already reading. Did this. I want to check and see if I like any corresponding literature worksheets I have, or if I want to simply continue his bare-bones reading journal. I also plan to start piano lessons with Caleb. Need to find the best time for that! Maybe Saturday afternoon? Thursday?
   

Personal

1. This month, I missed about 2-3 days of personal Bible reading, which is pretty good. In May, I want to read every day, even while on our trip. That will be hard.
2. Pray more for the children, my husband, and our people. When I do my daily “show-love-item” for my husband, I’ll pray for him as well. I am still not doing this. 😦 I think I will take this off the list until I can think of a way to make this “measurable” and “attainable.”
3. Try to exercise at least three times a week. Log my daily diet regularly online. Failed on the daily logging online, but I did do it more than last month. I exercised 3-4 times per week, except the week we were sick, when I only exercised twice. Log online! Again–maybe I should give that one up?
   
4. OK, I made a list of all the clutter spots, and will clean one every Saturday. This is doable! I haven’t done this yet, but plan to finish before April is over! Same goal for May–one area per weekend.
5. Meekness — I received a booklet on controlling anger by Joel James today, and plan to read that sometime in the next few months. I read it, and began blogging on Thursdays about my thoughts on Matthew Henry’s book. I want to continue blogging on it. 
6. Initiate with one lady this month (correspondence). I did this with one lady. This month, I will just try to make friends in person on our trip to Joburg.
   

Self-Education

Here’s my tentative reading list for 2014.  In April, I was supposed to finish the chapter of The Well-Educated Mind (TWEM) on the historical novel, but I haven’t yet. I do plan to finish before the end of April, though! I was also supposed to read the first half of Don Quixote. I didn’t.  I’ll try to make up for it by reading the whole thing in May. I’d also like to get through about 2-3 more chapters in How to Read a Book. I did not do that this month. It’s been a rough month for reading. All I got done was reading World magazine.

Also listen to the Susan Wise Bauer’s lecture on literature analysis for children. Did this, and made copious notes.

Check CHOLL and see what kind of children’s lit they have analyzed already and if I’d like to use it in the future. If I would like to do a simpler format to prepare for logic stage literature discussions ala The Well-Trained Mind, make a list of children’s lit to read and write down info per chapter to prepare for those. Didn’t do this. Instead this month, I will look at the lit worksheets as I mentioned under the homeschooling section, now that I have Caleb’s literature basically picked out.

Overall, I feel that I’ve let the doldrums set in this month. I’d like to re-energize my pursuit of these goals again this month, in spite of our planned mid-month trip. How are your 2014 goals going? Are you still trying, still pursuing?

I think this was me this month.